Page 23 of Redeemed Wolf

As charming, polite, and mild-mannered as he was at first glance, he’d begun to let his guard down around me, but it wasn’t a pretty sight beneath the façade. His eyes were filled with a manic light, his smile turning a little feral. “Oh, Silas, you’re in for a real treat today. Some of my experiments have been going well, very well indeed, and I wanted to try a round of tests with a new sample.” Samples. That meant a new cell, a new test subject.

“You know you can count on me,” I told him, loosening a button at the top of my collar. The uniform was built for easy movement, thankfully, since it looked like I was going to be wrestling with a shifter this morning.

“I know I can.”

I wanted to believe I was more emotionally prepared for this, after last time. I couldn’t afford to have a breakdown every time I was forced into this position. It was a lot, obviously, but this was what we’d been waiting for. If this was how I got in touch with the other shifters, then that was what needed to happen. They would understand in the end, it was necessary.

Eric let me stow my gear, then we convened at the end of the hall, farthest from the lab, where the temperature was coldest. There were twice as many guards as last time, burlier more seasoned men, but this time, a few of them were armed with more than tasers. They had heavy assault rifles designed to take lethal action.

Eric caught me eyeing up the weapons. “Merely a precaution,” he said.

“Where’s my precaution?” I asked. The non-lethal weapon I carried seeming small and pointless in comparison.

He looked straight at me, his eyes hard. “You won’t need it. You understand these creatures better than these guards do. You know how they move. You’ll be fine, I have faith in you.”

I’d been watching for Carter, but I could sense him on the other side of the building, and I wondered if that was intentional on Eric’s part. He knew what Carter was, but Carter himself didn’t have a clue. What would happen if he knew his brother and sister were locked in these cells, that they were the ones whose samples he was working on?

Dr. Taylor rubbed his hands together gleefully. “This subject, he is my most prized possession,” he said in a subdued whisper so that only I could hear. “Just barely 20 and already the fiercest shifter I’ve ever seen. Well, in captivity, anyway,” he amended quickly, and I wondered if he was thinking about the time Jude had beaten him within an inch of his life. My lips twitched with the threat of a smile. Eric seemed unaware of my humor, drifting in his own thoughts. “Can you imagine the potential? If I couldfind a way to harness even a fraction of that power… I would be unstoppable.”

He cleared his throat, shaking himself from whatever fantasy he’d lost himself in. “And I am most hopeful that his genetics would bring about the most benefit. I speculate that his DNA—hiswolf’sDNA—is more dominant than, say, an omega’s, so when splicing with a human’s cells, it might bring forward some of those coveted traits.”

“Like health and healing,” I offered.

“Hm? Yes, of course. I can just imagine the medical journals clamoring to get their hands on my research when it’s done.”

“So you would tell the world shifters exist?” I asked, more than a little skeptical. This seemed like the kind of information he would rather keep to himself.

Instead of answering, he turned to face the group of guards in the hall. “You boys ready?”

They nodded and echoed with a solid, “Yes, sir,” like the trained soldiers they had become, but it would be impossible to miss the way their fingers itched toward triggers. I just hoped we got this over with before someone accidentally shot me in the back.

Eric nudged me forward, leaning in to whisper in my ear. “The girl you saw, she’s an alpha too, but this one, don’t expect any cooperation from him. He won’t just spit at you—he’ll go for the jugular if you give him half a chance. He is positively brimming with strength and power. And stubborn to a fault. No matter how many times he gets taken down, he still thinks he can win.”

“Well… we’ll sure show him who’s boss.”

“That we shall,” he agreed, his eyes zeroed in on that door, as if he could already see the shifter on the other side. “Right… you’re up. Show me what you can do.”

I really wished he weren’t so giddy about the whole thing, seeing as it was likely Isaac on the other side of this door, andif he was as stubborn and wild as Eric claimed him to be, then there was no saying he wouldn’t act first without thinking. I needed to take him down fast, try to get him to understand why I was on this side of the door, get him to see reason.

Sweat trickled down my spine, soaking into my shirt, and my breathing picked up until I was nearly panting.I can’t do this. I’m so fucked.

Carter, my wolf said gently,mate, before recalling an image of him for me, smiling crookedly. It soothed and centered me in a way I hadn’t expected from my beast. Since when was he the logical one?

He seemed to have faith in me that we would survive this ordeal, all so we could make it to lunch with our mate. It was a simple goal, but also a vital one.

Steadying my grip on the taser and taking a slow, even breath, I turned and gave a sharp nod to the guard with his hand on the door. He jerked it back in one move, and I charged through the opening.

I barely registered the man before me as Isaac. There were hardly any traces left of the boy he’d been. And Eric had been right—this man was powerful. Huge shoulders for someone so young, his stringy hair hanging past his shoulders. He clearly took after his older brother, and that made me justifiably worried, because Isaac had heard us coming, and he was ready.

There was no time for words or subtle nods this time, no chance to communicate why I was there. Amelia had been cautious, wary, curious. Isaac was just pissed off—and he had at least 40 pounds on me.

What he didn’t have was experience.

He plowed into me, shoulder down, aiming to take me down, but instead of trying to absorb the hit, I used his momentum against him, pivoting with my hip and carrying him around. Wrapping an arm around his waist and tripping him up, Ibrought him straight down, face down on the concrete. His growl cut off with a grunt as I slammed him into the floor and dropped my full weight on his back.

I didn’t have to ask for cuffs this time, they were there waiting for me when I reached for them. I wrenched his arms back, feeling bone and sinew grinding as he tried to shift beneath me. I did what I could to keep him in place, but he seemed prepared to dislocate his shoulders if it meant getting free. I imagined this was what bull riders felt trying to stay in the saddle. Isaac bucked hard, even with three of us piled on top of him. He growled and whipped his head around, trying to get his teeth into some flesh.

“Watch it!” I shouted, but it was too late. Isaac caught someone’s gloved hand where the guard was trying to hold his shoulder, and the man howled, tearing his hand free with a spray of blood.

---